Certainly, conventional wisdom has been to not be openly racist in public spaces.

Turns out the conventional wisdom is wrong.

Not only are there tons of people who love it when you're openly racist, but also a lot of people who will tolerate it so long as you're rich (and can therefore make them rich). Between the two, you get a very strong alliance: both are super-excited by you, and even if they don't like each other they'll work together to defeat anybody who doesn't like you.